3 April 2004 ... Hotlinking

Ah, the world of Internet crime. I was hotlinked this week and yep, now I'm going to rant about it!

What is Hotlinking?

A hotlink is a direct link to a file on someone else's web site. Usually this occurs with image files but people also link directly to mp3s, mids, zips, pdfs and others.

Why is Hotlinking Wrong?

Hotlinking is a crime. It's against the law and the person who does it is a thief and a criminal. Not only is it breaking the copyright law: Redistribution of artwork without the artist's permission... It's also bandwidth theft.

Bandwidth is the data transfer that happens every time you view a web site online. The more people who view the site or download stuff from the site, the more bandwidth gets used. Personal web sites always have a set amount of bandwidth they can use. If the site uses more than the allotted bandwidth, one of two things WILL happen: the site will be removed, or the site owner will have to pay for the extra bandwidth.

Hotlinking can quickly put a big dent in allowed bandwidth. Quite often, images are hotlinked from forums and discussion boards... if it's a large image, and the forum is popular, the site being hotlinked could be shut down or charged for the extra bandwidth in just a few hours.

More importantly, hotlinking is a copyright crime. A hotlinker is displaying someone else's art on a site not affiliated with the artist.

What Can Happen?

If someone hotlinks to me, I could sue under the copyright laws. Hotlinks are ridiculously easy to track. I could get the hotlinker banned from the web accounts he/she is using.

I could remove the image that is being hotlinked. The hotlinker now has a broken link and nothing of mine to look at.

Or I could perform a "switcheroo". In other words, I could simply change the image...

I could replace the image with a few choice words. Something along the lines of "This image has been HOTLINKED. Hotlinking is illegal and the person who posted this image is a criminal! Please view the original at www.Static8.com"

Or I could get really quite obnoxious. Some inspiring web sites:
Image Lifting Imposter Prank
Switcheroo: Reasons Not to Direct Link Images

Instead of Hotlinking...

Please link to the original web page that contains the image or file you want to refer to.

For More Information

So You've Decided To Hotlink And Steal Bandwidth

Stop and Prevent Hotlink Bandwidth Theft, Hotlinking and File Leeching

R.I.G.H.T.S. Redistribution In Graphics Has To Stop

U.S. Copyright Office

What Is Copyright Protection?